LOS ANGELES (AP) – A woman who worked as a hair and makeup stylist. Garth Brooks A lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that he raped her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2019.
The woman does not use her own name in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, instead calling herself Jane Roe. Brooks forcefully denied the charges in a statement and acknowledged that he tried to get the court to stop filing the lawsuit Thursday.
The woman says in the lawsuit that she worked for Brooks’ wife, a country singer. trisha yearwoodI started working there in 1999 and also started working at Brooks in 2017.
She said the assault occurred while she was traveling from Nashville to Los Angeles with Brooks, who was performing with soul singer Sam Moore at the Grammy Awards in memory of Moore in October 2019.
Brooks typically traveled with an entourage, but they were alone on the private jet and booked a hotel suite for them, the complaint said.
The woman claims a man appeared naked in the doorway of her bedroom and raped her.
He then proceeded to work as if nothing had happened, expecting her to do her hair and makeup right afterward, according to the complaint.
The woman’s complaint alleges that while she was at Brooks’ home in early 2019, Brooks appeared in front of her naked, grabbed his hand and put it on his genitals.
Brooks filed a preemptive lawsuit in federal court in Mississippi last month, and he and the woman filed the lawsuit anonymously.
In court filings in the case, the plaintiff, who identified herself as John Doe, said the allegations were “absolutely false” and that she first learned about them in July. That’s when he threatened to publicly sue unless he handed over millions of dollars.
He asked the judge to stop the woman’s “intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and false invasion of her privacy.”
“For the past two months, I have been bombarded with endless threats, lies, and tragic stories about what my future holds if I don’t write a check for millions of dollars,” Brooks said in a statement. “It felt like a loaded gun was waved at my face.”
Brooks said he filed the lawsuit anonymously “on behalf of both families.”
“I trust the system, I’m not afraid of the truth, and I’m not the person they painted me to be,” his statement concluded.
The woman’s complaint also states that Brooks exposed himself to her on numerous other occasions, told her about his sexual fantasies and sent her explicit text messages.
She said financial hardship forced her to continue working for Brooks, but Brooks knew that and took advantage of it.
I sent an email to the woman’s attorney asking if she had reported her allegations to police, but did not immediately receive a response.
Brooks, 62, an Oklahoma native, was country music’s biggest star in the 1990s, with hits like “Friends in Low Places” and “Thunder Rolls.” He brought the theatricality of arena rock to his concerts and the sensibilities of pop music to his recordings. He achieved great success beyond typical country audiences.
He married Yearwood, the country’s star athlete, in 2005, but Yearwood’s representatives did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the lawsuit.